School may be out for the summer, but rising seniors Grace Harrison and Madeleine Buell are still carrying on their club’s mission.
Harrison and Buell are president and vice president of Belmont High School’s Food Insecurity Club, which strives to educate Belmont students on the realities and impacts of food insecurity and work to combat it locally. This month, the club is holding a food drive to benefit the Watertown Community Fridge.
The drive will run from Aug. 15 to 22.
There will be bins to drop off donations at the Beech Street Center, Belmont Books, and Marylou’s Coffee in Waltham. The students are asking for donations of boxed rice, cooking oil, menstrual products, single-serve snacks, and other non-perishable items.
“Fruits and vegetables don’t last a long time—they have maybe a week or two before they go bad—and we want to make sure that the donations last as long as possible, “ Harrison said. “If they aren’t used in a week, they can still be used for other families who might get them a month later.”
This is the club’s first summer food drive. Harrison said while school may be out for the summer, food insecurity doesn’t have a start and end date. Last year, 720 households in Belmont, representing 1,121 individuals, were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to the Belmont Farmers’ Market, which has a variety of food assistance programs available.
This year, the market has seen about a 20% uptick in people using the market’s HIP+ program, which gives anyone, regardless of whether they qualify for SNAP benefits, $20 a month toward produce, said Hal Shubin, chair of the market committee. Last week, the market had more than 100 people come in for the program, he added.
“There’s a lot of people in Belmont who also need that extra support. I think it’s important to also take into account that that’s also a part of our community,” Harrison said.
Throughout the year, the Food Insecurity Club hosts drives to benefit local community fridges and food pantries in the Belmont area. A resident is also working on opening up a community fridge at the First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist for the town as soon as the fall.
Both Harrison and Buell joined the club as sophomores, wanting to give back to their community.
“I know it makes me feel really good to give back and be able to help people using my time and being able to know that I’ve helped people and made a difference,” Buell said.
For the past year, they’ve been running the club, working to educate their peers on the prevalence of food insecurity and what they can do to combat it in their own backyard. Going with a “back to school” drive felt like a unique way to have an impact outside of the high school’s walls.
“I think it’s important to kind of give back to people, especially for those who aren’t really,days their voices aren’t really being heard,” Harrison added.
